The Pretty One

Tonal inconsistency is the iceberg that sinks "The Pretty One." The film is a mashup of wacky comedy, romance and sorrowful elements that would tax a more seasoned filmmaker than first-time writer-director Jenée LaMarque.

In full bubbly and chirpy mode, Zoe Kazan ("Ruby Sparks") plays both of a set of twins, Laurel and Audrey. Audrey is confident, competent and ambitious; her sibling is a mousey stay-at-home type. Riding together, they are involved in a car accident that kills Audrey, and Laurel slips into pretending that she is her more-glam sister.

The movie has the air of a fable, but still it's hard to accept that neither the hospital, the twins' widowed father (John Carroll Lynch) nor their friends spot the ruse. We are asked to turn our suspension-of-disbelief knob to 11.

The film milks a few laughs out of the notion of a shy young woman impersonating a go-getter. Laurel takes over her sister's job of selling real estate, and flops miserably at her first try. On a more serious note, we wait to see if she will liberate herself from the stifling role of being her dad's caretaker.

Two men emerge in Laurel's life. Audrey's tenant Basel (Jake Johnson), a neighborhood oddball who turns out to be a sweetheart, will obviously become a love interest. Charles (Ron Livingston) is a serial adulterer who was having an affair with Audrey.

Kazan (who, by the way, is the granddaughter of director Elia Kazan), lays on the cuteness pretty heavily. She has a tough job, since the story wobbles between asking to be viewed as a coy fantasy, as a seriocomic look at romantic relationships and a darker probing of family dynamics. And you may be sure that Laurel learns some heavy-duty, and prefab, lessons as a result of her charade.

"The Pretty One" is a movie with a few touching moments and others that prompt eye rolls. It sums up the film's problems that when the jig is up and the twins' family decides to have a second funeral, you can almost hear the audience thinking, "I am sure."